The NBC News (2/19, Fox) website reports that a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that “teenage fathers pass along six times as many genetic mutations to their kids as do teenage mothers.” After examining “the DNA of more than 24,000 parents and their children,” investigators “found that when the father was 20 or younger, the children had many more mutations than did children of older dads, as well as many more mutations than the offspring of teen mothers and adult dads.”

The Telegraph (UK) (2/18, Donnelly) reported that the study authors “said the findings could explain why the children of younger fathers have been found to have a higher risk of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and spina bifida, which have some genetic links.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Dads Pass Mutations to Their Kids,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, February 17, 2015.

TIME (2/19, Sifferlin) reports that a study published in the February issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests that “women who keep exercising into midlife can prevent depression.” After examining “10 years’ worth of data from 2,891 women between ages 42 and 52, who filled out questionnaires about their depressive symptoms and levels of physical activity,” researchers discovered that “women who were meeting public health recommendations for physical activity – 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise – reported fewer depressive symptoms.” What’s more, greater amounts of physical activity were tied to a decreased likelihood of depression.

Related Links:

— “Exercise May Prevent Depression—Not Just Alleviate It,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, February 18, 2015.

HealthDay (2/18, Preidt) reports that research published in Molecular Psychiatry suggests that “long-term use of methamphetamine causes more brain damage in teens than adults.” Investigators “conducted MRI brain scans of 51 teen and 54 adult chronic methamphetamine abusers.” They also scanned the brains of 60 teenagers and 60 adults who did not use methamphetamine. The researchers found that the “teen methamphetamine users had greater and more widespread changes in their brains” than the adult methamphetamine users, with the changes being particularly “evident in the frontal cortex.”

Related Links:

— “Methamphetamine May be More Harmful to Teen Brains,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 17, 2015.

HealthDay (2/17, Preidt) reported that research published in Health Psychology suggests that for individuals “age 70 or older who struggle with a chronic illness, loneliness is often a complicating factor.” Investigators “looked at 121 older adults, mostly in their 70s.” The researchers “found that feelings of loneliness rose after the onset of chronic health problems – even among those who had been with the same partner for 50 years or more.”

Related Links:

— “Chronic Illness, Loneliness May Go Hand-in-Hand for Some Elderly,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 16, 2015.

The Washington Post (2/18, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that a study published online Feb. 16 in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests that “frequent use of high-potency weed may be linked to an increased risk of having a psychotic episode.” The study also indicates that “milder strains of marijuana, even when used heavily, don’t appear to carry any increased risk of psychosis.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after comparing data on “410 South London patients sent to the hospital for a first-episode psychotic incident” and “370 control individuals living in the same area.”

The Fox News (2/17) website reports that individuals “who used the potent pot every day had a fivefold increased risk of developing psychosis,” but “the use of hash, a milder form of marijuana, wasn’t linked to a heightened risk of psychosis.” Fox News explained that “hash has a higher concentration of cannabidiol (CBD) than more potent forms, which have a higher percentage of marijuana’s psychotropic ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).” The effects of THC are believed to be “offset” by CBD.

Related Links:

— “Potent weed is worse for you than the mild stuff — and it’s hard to find anything else these days,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, February 17, 2015.

Medscape (2/17, Davenport) reports that a study published online Feb. 3 in the journal Diabetes Care suggests that youngsters “with type 1 diabetes have an increased risk for psychiatric disorders, particularly early on after diagnosis, that appears to be associated with having the disease, rather than a common etiology.” For the study, researchers “included 17,122 children with type 1 diabetes and 18,847 of their healthy siblings and followed them to their 18th birthday.” Investigators found an “increased risk…for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance misuse, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and intellectual disability, at respective hazard ratios of 2.0, 1.6, 2.2, 2.6, 1.5, 2.2, 1.7, and 1.8.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (2/15, Kuznar) reported that research suggests that “exercise may curb depression in adults with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions.” The “finding comes from a systematic review with meta-analysis” published online in Arthritis Research and Therapy.

Related Links:

— “Exercise Helps Battle Depression in Rheumatic Diseases,” Wayne Kuznar, MedPage Today, February 14, 2015.

In an investigatory piece, the Los Angeles Times (2/17, Therolf) reports that officials in Los Angeles County “are allowing the use of powerful psychiatric drugs on far more children in the juvenile delinquency and foster care systems than they had previously acknowledged, according to data obtained by The Times through a Public Records Act request.” The data reveal that “Los Angeles County’s 2013 accounting failed to report almost one in three cases of children on the drugs while in foster care or the custody of the delinquency system.” The Times also notes that “in California, 51% of children on psychiatric medications are taking the most powerful class of the drugs — antipsychotics — which have experienced explosive growth in foster care over the last 15 years, according to data obtained by the National Youth Law Center through a Public Records Act request.”

Related Links:

— “Rampant medication use found among L.A. County foster, delinquent kids,” Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2015.

The New York Times (2/14, Span, Subscription Publication) “The New Old Age” blog reported in depth on a study published in the February issue of JAMA Psychiatry that indicates that among 65- to 80-year-old Americans, almost nine percent use benzodiazepines. The Times said that among older women, almost 11 percent take the sedative-hypnotic medications. The Times wrote that there have been decades of warnings about unhappy consequences of benzodiazepines for older users, including increased risks of fractures and falls, car crashes, and reduced cognition.

Related Links:

— “Continued Questions on Benzodiazepine Use in Older Patients,” Paula Span, New York Times, February 13, 2015.

The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (2/13, Moulton) reports that a study published this week in the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that “middle-age men, who already have the highest risk for suicide, are even more likely than others to kill themselves after short-term exposure to air pollution.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after having studied “10 years of records for Salt Lake County residents who committed suicide.” Then, utilizing “raw data from air-monitoring stations and sophisticated modeling tools, they learned that men between the ages of 36 and 64 had the highest risk of suicide after breathing pollution, particularly nitrogen dioxide.”

Related Links:

— “U. study: Middle-aged men at highest risk of suicide after breathing bad air,” Kristen Moulton, Salt lake Tribune, February 12, 2015.